Of The Past We Use To Advance
by Arcae
Summary: It's been one year since the activation of the Purifier occurred and now Falcon is travelling to find some pre-war technology to help defeat the Enclave Remnant and save the one he loves. But will he be able to do it?
1. Party Time People

**Author's Note**

So this is my first FanFic I've posted on this site.  
It's been up for a while but I haven't always been happy with it and have only recently just gone through all of it and changed a few things around.  
Nothing too major apart from my character name for the Lone Wanderer has changed.  
I hope you enjoy the story and for those who have read it before, I suggest re-reading it from the first chapter so you understand what's going on.

**Description**

It's been one year since the activation of the Purifier occurred and now Falcon is travelling to find some pre-war technology to help defeat the Enclave Remnant and save the one he loves. But will he be able to do it?

**Of The Past We Use To Advance Chapter 1 – Party Time People.**

The loud sounds of music from Agatha's Violin, an Initiate's skill on the drums and of all people, Knight Captain Gallows playing an acoustic guitar, were all helping to place a positive mood for the party in the bailey. Tonight was a celebration for all of the Wasteland; just this particular party was reserved for the Brotherhood and certain guests while it remained in the bailey of the Citadel.

Everyone was partying, some harder than others, most competing to see who could be the party drunk of the night but overall, everyone was having the time of their lives.  
Yet as Sentinel Sarah Lyons walked through the courtyard passing her fellow Brotherhood 'Brothers' she could not help but notice her good friend Falcon. She always thought it was stupid having to call him that, but he never let anyone know his real name. It always seemed like not many people cared though, they were just grateful he would help them.  
But here he was, sitting at the bar silently with a bottle of pre-war vodka instead of being in the outside world saving people from danger.  
She mused silently to herself, remembering the first time they met. He told her to call him Falcon and that he left the safety of his Vault to search for his missing father. When she pressured him for his actual name, mainly because of her curiosity more than really needing to know, he only ever said, _"One day, if you've been nice and I'm feeling talkative, I'll tell you everything you want to know."_  
It was always hard to imagine that was just over a year ago.

Tonight however is the one year anniversary since the Purifier was activated; only a few days earlier had it also been the anniversary of death for Falcon's father James. Sarah knew how incredibly close Falcon and his father were. Even closer than her and her father Owyn, leader of the Brotherhood of Steel are.

She walked towards the bar he was sitting at and joined him on one of the bar stools.

"One Nuka-Scotch thanks," she said to the bartender as she turned to face Falcon, "Hey there Con. You know, considering we wouldn't be having this party at all without your help, I thought you'd at least be going around the courtyard and spending time with everyone. It's not just the members of the Brotherhood but also your close friends that are here."

Con smiled lightly and turned to face Sarah and said, "Look, I know you think I'm..."  
"Sulking." Sarah burst out, cutting Falcon off mid-sentence while the bar tender gave Sarah her drink.

He looked at her with a small touch of annoyance that vanished as he replied, "No, I was going to say being silent but I guess sulking works too. So does mourning but I think I've been doing that for a year now, don't you?"

Sarah put her hand on Falcon's shoulder and gripped it lightly, letting her usual military facade fall for a moment so he could see the saddened look on her face. Over the past year they had worked on several large operations or missions, usually of which consisted of clearing out a nest of Ghouls or Supermutants, which let the two of them develop an unspoken bond between them.

Usually it meant that just one look at each other showed more then what a paragraph could say. This time, he knew she was saying he didn't have to stay this way. And she was right. Some of his closest friends he had made over the past two years were at this party. Even Fawkes the friendly Supermutant. A year ago the Brotherhood would have shot him on sight but now, a lot of them called him a friend.

Falcon took one last shot of vodka and got up from his barstool, extending his arm that Sarah took and the two of them walked into the crowd of people in the courtyard.

"_Sarah has a unique way of getting me to see cleary. I guess that's one reason I feel a connection to her"_ Falcon thought as they became lost in the crowd.


	2. Blessings In A Bad Time

**Of The Past We Use To Advance Chapter 2 – Blessings In A Bad Time.**

The evening sun was shining brightly through the window over Falcon's face as he slowly woke up from his bed. No, this wasn't his bed. This was Sarah's!

After opening his eyes to see a few open and empty bottles of whiskey and vodka he turned his body to find Sarah lying with him, realising that they were both naked.

'_Oh fuck'_ Falcon thought to himself as he slowly got up and out of the bed, looking for his clothes.  
He found his white undershirt and underwear and the lower half of the casual clothes he wore the previous night. It wasn't until Sarah woke up and started to get out of her bed when he found his long brown overcoat Moira had acquired for him to wear over his armour when he was exploring the Wasteland.  
Falcon could only stare at the beauty of Sarah's body, the long smooth shape of her torso and legs and the way her blonde hair came down around her shoulders and partially over her breasts. He had rarely seen her with her thin hair down.

She sat back down on the bed realising she was about to be sick because she got up to fast.  
"Wow. Last night must have either been really bad so I blocked out the memories, or it's just the affects from the alcohol," Sarah stated, doing her best to hide a laugh while she picked up her underwear off the floor and start pulling them up her legs.

"Yeah. Ah, look. Considering we were both naked and umm... Very, very, very, very, drunk! Umm, I guess what I'm trying to say is, ahh..." Sarah moved across the room to Falcon and put her finger over his lips to stop him from talking.

"I think we both enjoyed last night. Sure people do things they wouldn't normally do when drunk but I think we both wanted what happened, to happen. At least I know I do. If you were someone under my command I wouldn't have let myself do anything with you but, you're different. You're part of the Brotherhood now but you just work with my sqaud."

Falcon sighed and gave her a small smile as he drew Sarah into a hug. She relaxed between his arms before he kissed her softly on the lips. "Are you sure about that Sarah?"  
She just smiled as she drew Falcon back to her bed, taking off her underwear and then his shirt. The two of them found each other as they covered themselves with the sheets of Sarah's bed and started to kiss.

* * *

As Falcon and Sarah walked downstairs in the science lab a sudden silence fell between all of Lyons Pride, Elder Lyons and Scribe Rothchild who were standing together in discussion.  
All of the Pride had their Power Armour Helmets on though everyone could tell they were all silently snickering beneath them. Walking towards the science lab Falcon and Sarah noticed people looking at them and silently chuckling to themselves. It was apparent that everyone knew what had happened the night before.

"Good afternoon Sarah, Falcon. I take it the amount of alcohol you consumed last night is the reason why the two of you have made such a late appearance," Elder Lyons greeted them in his always calm tone of voice as the two of them stopped in front of the small crowd.

"Hello father. Yes well, had we known how we were going to feel in the morning, I don't think we would have had that much," Sarah replied, placing her hand over the cold metal of her armour in front of her stomach, stopping herself from vomiting everywhere. "Anyway, we're here now. What's the problem?"

Rothchild directed everyone forward to the orange coloured map of the D.C. area in the corner of the lab and began his speech.

"In the past fortnight our scouts positioned near the remains of Raven Rock have reported that there has been an influx of Enclave Vertibirds and troopers scouring through the remains of the military base. Now as you all know, after the destruction of Raven Rock, due to the help of Con here," Rothchild nodded towards Falcon who pulled a chair over from the table and sat down on it, "We attempted to scour through the wreckage to find any sort of technology we could scavenge but had little success in finding anything of considerable value, although, bearing in mind the place truly was destroyed."

Con decided to speak up while Rothchild took a moment to stop.  
"So you're telling us that right now on that goddamn mountain, there are, how many? Enclave soldiers and Vertibirds?"

Rothchild pulled a document from his coat and said, "Well the Enclave have set up a base and an excavation site at Raven's remains and at the last count there are twenty-six standard Enclave soldiers, two Commanders, two of those Hellfire troopers and the remaining ten personal are divided into the soldiers with that Tesla Armour and pilots for the four Vertibirds that stay on site."

Con decided to speak up again but to Elder Lyons, "Well. Elder, if you don't mind my input I would suggest ambushing the squads that are no doubt patrolling the area. I still have my stealth armour so I can sneak in the base and set explosive charges and when we detonate them, in the wonderful ensuing chaos we can snipe everyone. However for those that remain, the Pride and I can move in and start shooting. And hell, if all goes to plan for once we may even get a lot more Enclave tech out of it."

Lyons stood there for a moment and turned to Sarah and the Pride, "If you all agree then by all means, formulate a plan starting from what Con has just said and present it to me. We have no idea if this is all that remains of the Enclave, but if they have more forces on their way here, then they cannot be far behind. We should take out this Enclave threat now in case there will be another wave of Enclave soldiers some time in the future."

All of them nodded their head in agreement and started to walk to the Great Hall in Ring-B to start their plan when Elder Lyons asked Sarah and Falcon to wait.

With one look from Owyn, Rothchild moved away, as did any scribes near the three of them giving Owyn the room to talk freely, if not quietly.

"Now I may be old but I am not yet blind. Or deaf. As the whole Citadel knows and heard, last night the two of you ended up going to bed together," Both Falcon and Sarah's posture slouched while they focused their eyes anywhere away from Owyn.  
While laughing slightly he continued, "Now I have to say. I couldn't be happier that the two of you are together," Falcon and Sarah stopped looking away and focused their attention on Owyn who just smiled.

"Con you have come so far since you left the Vault and joined the Brotherhood, and Sarah, with his arrival you have allowed yourself to live life like he does and learn to let go and have some fun. You have never been so happy, nor has everyone else around here. Morale is at an all time high like it never has been before because the two of you have become such great friends over the past year," the two of them were now looking at each other, looking into each other's eyes as the truth of what Owyn was saying hit them.  
"And we all know what happened between you two last night, considering how, vocal... you were."  
The eyes of the both of them lit up in surprise as they hadn't remembered being so loud.

"Nonetheless, I give you both my approval to be together and hopefully, it will lead on further. Seeing the two of you together brings joy to my old heart."

Owyn took hold of Falcon and Sarah's hands and placed them together and walked away.  
The two of them looked at each other once more and gripped each other's hand tight.

Just with their facial expressions they could see each other saying _'Let's try and see how this goes'_.


	3. Cloak And Dagger's

**Of The Past We Use To Advance Chapter 3 – Cloak And Dagger's.**

Eight thirty at night and everything is dark, with only the light of the moon shining onto the face of the mountain and the lights from the Enclave camp illuminating the broken road. This was a perfect time to sneak around the Enclave encampment without being seen or heard.

Falcon was using his Stealth Armour so it made sneaking around the camp and planting explosive charges in the tents that littered the area so incredibly easy.

Performing this mission was thought to best be done at night not only to make it easier for Falcon to sneak around, but so that the Pride wouldn't easily be seen hiding around the rocks that scattered the area.  
The sniper teams arrived earlier so they could climb up the side of the mountain and find positions which suited them best to take out the Enclave soldiers when instructed to.

There were only specific tents that Falcon was going to be blowing up with the explosives, such as where the Enclave soldiers were sleeping and if necessary the command tent. The theory behind not blowing up all of the tents was so they could collect as much Enclave technology, ammo and medical supplies as possible, as well as taking the tents for use as mobile camps in the wasteland when they needed one in the future.

Falcon only had the command tent to go where both Enclave commanders were still there and talking to each other. He noticed the first commander, a blonde female who was sitting down at a computer terminal in the middle of the tent reading out an update of their orders, "General Turner wants us to send out a patrol to one of the SatCom arrays designated as NW-05a."

The other commander who was lying down on his bed got up and turned to her with an eyebrow raised, "Does he say why? Because the reports that we have from President Eden's forces said that all the arrays were either inactive or damaged in such a way that we don't have the parts to repair them."

The female commander replied, "Sorry Glen but he doesn't. All he says is that we need to go there, remove any residents and take control of the array before his arrival in a few days."

Glen stood there in thought until an Enclave scientist entered the tent.

"Excuse me for interrupting but we've made some progress with the excavation."  
Both commanders looked at the white suited man as he continued, "We managed to dig down far enough and found an intact hallway with a terminal that was linked to the fusion generators of the base. It barely has enough power to function but we've found that according to its final report, the generators went into a form of overload. That's what caused the base to explode."

"Does the terminal say why the generators overloaded?" Glen asked to which the scientist just shook his head.

"No it doesn't. Considering it's dark now we're stopping the excavation for the night and resting up. We'll resume early in the morning. Now if you'll excuse me, I have equipment to secure."

The scientist walked out of the tent, leaving the two commanders and Falcon who was crouching in the corner of the tent alone.

Glen turned to face his counterpart and said "Well I'll go and organise a squad to look at that tower now. May as well not waste any time as we know what the General is like when objectives aren't performed quickly enough."

He turned and walked out of the tent. Falcon started to think how he would go about planting the explosive in the roof of the tent without attracting the attention of the female officer but then he thought of something better.  
He carefully crept up to the table in the centre of the room and placed the explosive underneath it, almost slipping up when he fumbled the explosive but caught it before touching the officer's leg.  
He started to back up slowly so he could sneak out of the tent when the officer got up and zipped the tent flaps together leaving Falcon to think _'Shit. How the hell am I going to get out of here now?_

The officer went to a locker and retrieved a small flat device and pulled out a long antenna from the top of it. She placed it down on the table, pressed a few buttons and said, "Home base come in please. This is Commander Daughtry of Raven encampment. Home base, come in please."

It was a few seconds later that Falcon heard a deep voice come from the device, "This is General Turner, report Commander Daughtry."

"Sir, the excavations are proceeding well. We have found a terminal which has told us the fusion generators of Raven Rock overloaded, so that is the most apparent reason the base is gone sir."

There was a moment silence until Turner replied, "That is indeed interesting. This leads to the question of why that happened. Anyway, moving on. Have you received my new orders?"

"Yes sir we have. Commander Vaughan is organising a squad to head to the array right now."

"Very good commander. If that is all I will talk to you tomorrow for another update?"

"Yes sir that is all I have to report for now. Goodnight sir," Daughtry pressed two buttons on the device and pushed the antenna in, placing it back in the locker.

She walked to the tent flaps and unzipped them, walking outside leaving Con alone in the tent.

"_About bloody time. Hmm... I may as well take that device seeing as they won't be using it anymore."_

Con moved to the locker and took the device, putting it in the bag he had used to hold the explosives.

He proceeded to move outside, noticing several Enclave soldiers walking around on patrol.  
He started to walk to the outer edge of the camp and met up with Sarah at one of the larger rocks on the side of the road.

"Sarah," he whispered, causing her to jump slightly, "Con? Where are you?"

"Oh right, sorry," he suddenly appeared before Sarah's eyes and took off the helmet of his armour.

"That thing freaks me out sometimes. Anyway, here's your armour. When you're ready I'll give the signal for the attack to begin," Con nodded as he took his Ranger armour and started to put it on over his stealth armour. The good thing about the stealth armour is not only does it help out when you need to escape the view of someone, but it's thin enough to put other apparel on over it.

After Falcon was done he nodded to Sarah who pulled out a flare gun and aimed high above the Enclave camp.

She fired the first flare, lighting up the camp in a red hue, attracting the attention of every Enclave soldier outside the tents; the loud sounds of several sniper rifles echoed around the mountain as soldier after soldier dropped to the ground, some being shot in the head, others in the chest.  
Sarah shot another flare up in the sky, watching Falcon put his helmet on and once more disappear in front of her as he activated his stealth armour. She also watched as every Enclave soldier in the tents rushed outside to find who was shooting at them and Lyons Pride moving slowly around the edge of the encampment shooting at any soldier they had a chance to kill with only one or two shots of their laser rifles.

Suddenly several tents exploded into a fiery cloud of smoke. Falcon had triggered the explosives and moved in with his shock sword, striking down any soldier that got in his way.  
The snipers on the mountain face were now covering Falcon and the Pride who were moving in on the camp, shooting to kill all those who opposed them.

The battle didn't even last for another five minutes until all the Enclave troops and scientists who had been excavating the site were either dead or surrendering.

Sarah and the Pride were in the middle of the encampment taking note of how many prisoners they had and calling in the other members of the Brotherhood to help put out the fires and start securing what remained of the camp.

"This is it. These are all the remaining Enclave personnel," Paladin Vargas reported to Sarah who was counting how many prisoners they had.

"Vargas is right, that's all of them. I just went around the whole camp and couldn't find anyone else," Falcon added to Vargas report, causing Sarah to look around because she couldn't see him.

Realising he was still in stealth mode he deactivated his armour and took off his helmet, appearing next to Vargas, "Sorry I tend to forget when I activate it," Falcon smirked as he looked at the faces of the prisoners who were studying him up and down to figure out how he just appeared out of nowhere.

"Hmm, that's a first," Falcon said aloud.

Sarah and Vargas looked at him curiously as he added, "I was just thinking that this has to be the first operation that's gone exactly to plan. Great. Now I feel like something bad is going to happen," Sarah and Vargas let out a small laugh as Falcon stood on the spot turning around in every direction looking for anything that could be trouble.

Sarah walked over to him and pulled him by the back of his armour saying, "Come on nutjob, time for you to pilot one of these Vertibirds back to the Citadel so we can tell my father that the plan has worked, and that we have a few prisoners."

The two of them started walking towards the parked Vertibirds near the edge of the mountain while the rest of the Pride kept a watchful eye on the prisoners.


	4. May's Magic Moves

**Of The Past We Use To Advance Chapter 4 – May's Magical Moves.**

_It was midnight and the enclosure was so cold and muddy because of the heavy rain falling all over him as he lay there. The mud was deep and he was in so much pain. His only friend was a Radroach that was contently sitting in the corner under a wooden box just waiting for Falcon to die so it could get its long awaited meal._

_He was just begging for death as an escape as he was thinking back as to how he got there, back before the slavers captured him and beat him every single day.  
He remembered planting a few mines as a trap for a Deathclaw that was attacking wastelander's every time they were in the area. But when he planted the final one, of all things, a Molerat, the ugliest and stupidest of the mutated animals that scoured the wasteland, decided to run through the minefield. It set off a chain of explosions that sent Falcon flying across the ground knocking him unconscious.  
Slavers were attracted to the explosions and had found him minutes later. They decided to put a slave collar on him and beat him all the time as punishment for his 'crimes' against Paradise Falls._

_The gates to the enclosure opened and two rough looking men walked in and pulled Falcon up by his arms, his tattered shirt ripping further in the process. The two men were holding him in place as he was kneeling in the mud when a tall muscular man walked in with a board of wood. Falcon knew his name was Jotun. The dumbest of all the slavers but was surprisingly proficient when it came to capturing slaves.  
Con winced in fright and pain as the slaver raised the piece of wood and spoke with Sarah's voice, "Falcon! Falcon! CON! WAKE UP!C'mon wake up already!"_

Con woke up and lunged forward, falling off the side of the bed. He noticed his eyes were full of tears and his heart was beating rapidly.

"A nightmare again," Sarah asked quietly.

She had gotten off the bed and sat next to him as he leaned against the bed, trying to steady his heartbeat.

"Are you okay?" she asked in a soothing voice as she ran her hand through his long brown hair.

He closed his eyes and said softly, "I'll be fine, just... Just give me a minute."

This wasn't the first time he had nightmares because of his past. If it wasn't from the time the slavers captured him, it was when he was almost eaten by a nest of Mirelurks, or the cannibals of Andale. Or reliving his father's death over and over again.

Sarah took his hand and pulled him towards the bed where they lay for a few more minutes. If there was one thing Falcon hated, it was appearing weak, especially to someone he cared so much for, but he knew Sarah had been through her own horrors of the Wasteland and understood why he had such nightmares.

* * *

It had been four days since they attacked the Enclave camp at the remains of Raven Rock so Elder Lyons called a meeting for an update on the situation with what the Brotherhood gained from the attack and the status of the prisoners.

Falcon and Sarah walked in the Great Hall to find Rothchild and half of the Pride sitting down at the circular shaped table.  
Sarah went and spoke to Vargas so Falcon sat next to Rothchild.

"Good morning my boy," Con smiled at him and returned the greeting so Rothchild began a conversation.

Over the course of the next few minutes, the rest of the Pride and as a surprise to Con, Star Paladin Cross followed by Elder Lyons walked in the room.

Everyone began to settle themselves and cease their talking when Lyons sat down with Cross standing behind him.

"This will be the last meeting for a while between all of us here as I have assignments for all of you. First, I would like to note that as you all know, repairs to the Citadel have been extensive since we've had the time and resources to rebuild our home. Last night the jail cells were completed in the north-western wing of the sub-basement and all Enclave prisoners have been placed there under heavy guard."

"Personally I prefer my Enclave dead on the ground. Though I guess having them rot behind bars is good enough," Knight Captain Dusk said aloud, getting a few laughs or "hear-hears" from almost everyone one in the room.  
Con just remained silent. His hatred for the Enclave was strong, but over the year since their defeat at Adams Air Force Base that hatred had died down. Especially after he became sick of Talon Company constantly trying to kill him so he took his anger out on them, wiping almost all of them out at Fort Bannister.

"Yes well unfortunately they are bred and raised to follow the orders of their idiotic superiors but they are nonetheless, human."

"Anyway, continuing on. When Falcon returned home four nights ago he gave an Enclave device to Rothchild for study. If you will please explain what it is my friend?"

Everyone looked at Rothchild as he began one of his long winded speeches.

"Essentially it is a long range communications device for the Enclave, using only a set amount of radio frequencies to talk on. Since activation of the device, we have been able to gather strategic information such as the whereabouts of several Enclave camps in and outside of the D.C. area. At the moment our scribes are sifting through the data and maintaining records of it all."

Rothchild took a breath and continued in a more serious and concerned tone.

"However, we've become aware that they have set up camp in one of the old SatCom Arrays which could be troublesome."

Before Rothchild could continue, Falcon interrupted him, "Actually, you don't have to worry much about the array."

Rothchild looked at him curiously as he asked, "What do you mean? Do you have information on this array that we do not?" Con laughed silently to himself before speaking up.

"Yes actually. After I caused Raven Rocks destruction and started heading back to the Citadel, I stopped there to rest. Downside was that the place was crawling with Talon Company Mercs and a ghoul scientist who was trying to get the array working."

Rothchild's brow furrowed as he usually did when he started to think.

"After I dealt with all of them I found out that it's the only array in the area that can call down a nuclear payload from a satellite in orbit. The array's rotors are also damaged so it can't change its pre-existing target location which is about a kilometre east of the array.

"That is still a reason to worry though," Rothchild replied to which Falcon just shook his head and continued saying, "Not really. For one thing the Enclave doesn't, and will never have the launch codes."

"How exactly can you be certain of that?" Owyn asked.

"Well because I'm the only one with the launch codes. And before I left the array, I fiddled around with the operating system it was using so that the only way you can use the system is if my Pip-Boy is connected to it."

"Why have you not told us about the array before? We could have secured it and attempted to repair the array should we ever need the use of it!" Owyn demanded in an annoyed voice.

"Honestly. It slipped my mind. Especially with the fact that the only threat we've had for a year is the remaining mutants and feral ghouls."

Owyn relaxed slightly before he continued talking.

"Very well then. I suppose you do have a point. But here is what is happening now though. Paladin Cross is going to be leading the Pride in an attempt to secure the array why the three of you," Owyn pointed to Falcon, Sarah and Paladin Vargas, "Are heading off to Evergreen Mills."

A look of confusion took over the faces of the three of them until Owyn continued.

"Last night a Wastelander was paid by someone to deliver a message to you Falcon. The message was a request for you to travel to Evergreen Mills and meet with someone who is willing to give us tactical information on the Enclave but, naturally, for a price."

"Ahh, yeah, sure. If I wanna be captured, raped, pulled apart and strung up on a wall as a trophy by a shitload of drug-fucked raiders. The Mill is raider territory. Hell it's the capital city for those fuckers!" Falcon ranted, crossing his arms as if he had a choice in the matter.

"Yes I know but that is why Sarah and Vargas are going with you for backup. The Pride can handle taking the array while you can meet this person. It's unlikely but for all we know this contact actually has information on the Enclave. We have to take the chance."

Con sighed, rubbing his forehead to try and get rid of the headache he felt coming on.  
He looked next to him at Sarah who smiled lightly. It's not like he could actually tell the leader of the Brotherhood no.

"Alright then, fine, you win. I'll go."

"Excellent! You can leave when you're ready."

A smile washed over Owyn's face as he stood up, dismissed everyone and walked out of the room.

"Don't you love it how he asks you to do something but you know you can't exactly say no to him," Falcon said to Sarah who just laughed, patted him on the shoulder and walked out of the room with Vargas.

Con started to walk out when Rothchild stopped him.

"My boy, I have a somewhat unusual request for you but would you accompany me to the medical lab? We have a very young Enclave soldier who we have administered a mind altering drug to and I'm hoping that you could maybe help us into making him realise we are actually the 'good guys' here."

"Umm, you're drugging Enclave soldiers to convince them we're the good guys? Which I'm not disputing is the truth but isn't that a little... brainwashy?"

"Yes well it wasn't exactly my idea. You know what Scribe May is like, coming up with new drugs to test out. Unfortunately she went straight over my head to ask for permission to test the drug out. As per usual..." Reginald stated in a quiet and annoyed tone of voice which Falcon couldn't help but snigger at.

"Alright then, lead the way."

The two of them exited the Great Hall and began walking to the infirmary, once inside Falcon saw a shirtless young man who couldn't be more than eighteen years old. The few white scars decorated over his thin and athletic body was brightened by the light tan he had.  
Strapped down to a medical gurney he was struggling to break free as Scribe May approached him, a Stimpack in her hand, its cartridge full of a fluorescent blue liquid.

"Let me out, please for godsake let me the fuck out of here!" he yelled struggling against the straps.

"Sawbones can you hold his arm still for me please," May asked as the faded green, hovering, sphere shaped robot extended one of his mechanical arms, gripping the young man's arm with its pincer like hand and holding it steady as May injected the drug into the shallow vein on his left arm.

"Argh! Let me out please! I haven't done anything wrong! Let me go... Le... m-mm... ee... g-g-go..," he began to fade out of consciousness, tears falling down the side of his face. Falcon couldn't help but feel unsettled by it all. Sure he was Enclave but, he was a young man, a human who was being used as a guinea pig to another one of May's experiments.  
Hopefully though, this one will end better as opposed to the last test subject she was working on; a raider who had developed a cold that she tried to treat. Instead, her 'serum' caused his blood to boil and organs to liquefy. It left quite a mess and a very unhappy Elder. But Rothchild did suggest it could be applied to the Mutant problem, if only as a last resort.

"Bones can you please take note of his vitals and tell me if they change significantly." May asked.

"Sir, yes, sir!" Sawbones replied as his pincer hand arm swung upwards to one of his eyepieces before turning to face a monitor in the corner of the room.

"So tell me May. What's his name, how old is he and is he dead or what?" Falcon asked in a polite manner. He had learned to always be nice to May as she had a tendency to yell. Very loudly. Some people have often said they would rather go up against a horde of Super Mutants then be in the room when she yells.

"According to his holotags he is Recruit Tyler Daniels, eighteen years old. Too young to be involved with the Enclave," May shook her head before continuing, "And no he is not dead. I mixed in a strong anaesthetic with the serumso he is only unconscious. Hopefully though the serum will only take several hours to alter his brain chemistry so he will lose the anger his brain was designed to function with since birth."

Con looking slightly confused took a gamble at the fear of her yelling and asked, "What exactly do you mean when you say 'designed to function with since birth'?"

"You may as well take a seat 'cause it's a long story. But I s'pose I can give you the shortened version. We've learnt through medical records recovered from Raven Rock that all children born in the Enclave essentially have their brain chemistry altered so they thrive off a small amount of anger. It's the Enclave's way of controlling them and making them view their leaders words as the gospel truth."

"In which case it would be us being the 'bad guys' of the Wasteland right?"

"That is correct. Hopefully this serum will alter his neural pathways to what the normal human brain should be, removing that control and letting him think clearly. To let him see and hear the facts in front of him, without clouding his mind full of Enclave propaganda."

Falcon looked at Rothchild who had a concerned look on his face.

'_How could the Enclave brainwash them like this. It's so wrong!'_ Falcon thought as he looked at Tyler who was still laying there in his unconscious state.


	5. Message In A Bullet Part I

**Of The Past We Use To Advance Chapter 5 – Message In A Bullet Part I.**

Falcon walked in to the infirmary seeing a tired May sitting down at Sawbones' medical terminal, effortlessly writing up her report on her serum into the Citadel's mainframe while Sawbones was in a corner of the room sorting medical supplies. He noticed that Tyler was asleep on the gurney but this time unstrapped, although he did have several abrasions on his wrists and arms from when he struggled against the restraints.

"Morning May," Falcon greeted her, she stopped typing and looked at him, "Oh morning Con. If you just give me a minute to finish this I'll be able to talk at will with you," she smiled than resumed typing at the terminal.

Falcon walked up to the side of the gurney, looking at a monitor displaying Tyler's vital signs. Blood pressure and heart rate were all normal but it was a display of his brain which caught his interest. It showed a layout of Tyler's brain highlighted in blue with a small red cloud in the centre and outer edges of his brain, slowly being replaced by the blue.

"The blue colour is the serum at work. It's altering his brain remember, so the red colours are parts of his brain the serum hasn't touched yet," May said when she noticed he was looking at the display.

"I'm all done with the report now so if you want to ask me something please be quick about it. I took an all-nighter so I want to go get some sleep now."

Falcon turned to face her and said, "I didn't really want to ask anything. I was just checking up on Tyler here. Seeing if your serum is working."

May smiled, letting out a loud chuckle, "You're afraid he's insides are going to liquefy aren't you? Don't worry, that was a one off."

Falcon frowned at her just causing her to chuckle further.

"Okay I'm sleeping now. Sawbones please keep one of your eyes on him at all times and call me if his condition changes, for the better or worse, or if he wakes up."

Sawbones' arm moved to his eyepiece in salute again as he replied to the order in his usual programmed way, "Sir, yes, Sir!" adding, "I'll watch this commie bastard with a careful eye!"

'_What were they thinking when they programmed the Gutsy models vocal features'_ May thought as she walked out of the room while Falcon just stood there looking at Tyler. He had this feeling about him, like there was something about him. He just couldn't think what.

* * *

Con was back in his room, or rather Sarah's. Since their morning confession that they had feelings for each other, Con started sleeping with her every night, practically moving into the room with her.

He pulled his green pants up his legs, put on his boots and protective shin and knee caps, his green undershirt and raised the Ranger armour's torso piece over his head and put it on.  
After securing the torso piece he picked up one of his favourite weapons he received as a gift from Agatha. A .44 magnum Con named Blackhawk because of its black colour as opposed to the usual silver of a magnum.  
He put it in its leather holster he had found when scouring through a weapons store once and tied it to his right leg.  
He picked up his Lincolns Repeater and secured it on his back with a bandolier full of .44 rounds and microfusion cells for his plasma rifle. He put on his long brown overcoat, letting the length of it run down his legs stopping short above his ankles as he got comfortable in it and holstered his plasma rifle outside his overcoat on his back. Before exiting the room he placed a few frag and pulse grenades on his belt. Who knows if he would need to use them?

Now he was ready to leave.

* * *

Con walked outside the Citadel witnessing the sun starting to rise over the horizon.  
He noticed Sarah and Vargas were waiting for him on the landing pier, or Vertipad as he liked to joke; on the shore of the Citadel. After the fight at Adams Air Force Base they acquired a few Vertibirds so they needed a secure place to land it. The easiest way was to construct a pier which was now being extended considering they now had four more Vertibirds since their recent attack at Raven Rock.

"About time you got here. The birds all ready to take us to the entrance of the mill where there's a railway track." Sarah stated while she followed Vargas, stepping inside the Vertibird, followed by Falcon. Vargas and Sarah sat down while Falcon closed the door to the Vertibird and stood behind the pilots as they began flying the aircraft over the Citadel towards the mill.

Only a few minutes later they had arrived and the pilots set the aircraft down about one hundred metres away from the railway track as they noticed three raiders standing guard. One had a missile launcher which wouldn't bode well for them if they got too close.

Falcon and Vargas stepped outside the aircraft as one of the pilots said to Sarah, "We have orders to head east and drop a supply of water to Arefu. We should be back in time to pick you up. If you need our help sooner, just contact us on the radio and we'll head straight back."

"Alright then. Try not to take too long in case we need a pick up sooner."

"Yes ma'am."

Sarah exited the aircraft and joined Falcon and Vargas who were already walking to the mill. Sarah started to catch up to them as the Vertibird lifted off and headed in the direction they came from.

When the three of them approached the raiders, they were surprised when one of the ugliest and smelliest of them moved to the side pointing down the tack saying in a gruff voice, "Tha' boss is t'rew d'ere. He don' like to be waitin' so 'urry tha fuck up." The raider spat on the ground in front of Sarah with an evil looking smile you would see on the most crazed rapist.

Vargas aimed his minigun at the raider, watching him back off in fright. He was tempted to start beating the living hell out of him to teach him some respect, but knowing what he was thinking and feeling, Sarah looked at him and shook her head so he lowered his gun and continued walking with the two of them as they started down the track.

The track was through a narrow corridor of a small cliff where they saw a few more raiders standing on top of the rocks, looking down at them with a look of pure hatred.

When the three of them got to the end of the corridor and found it opened up into a larger area they saw a large bulky raider wearing what looked like a battered and old Power Armour with the Outcast colours painted on it. There was also about twenty raiders around him. The three of them presumed he was the one they were here to meet.

They walked up to him and stopped when he started talking.

"I'm glad you have finally arrived. I am Ral'ee, leader of the Raiders of this fine Wasteland."

"Well you obviously know who I am so I don't see a need to introduce myself," Falcon stated bluntly.

The raider laughed in a vicious manner, "Yes you're right I do know you!"  
He moved up close to him leaving only a metres gap between them and said quietly, "You're Connor 'Falcon' Zachary, born July thirteenth, twenty-two fifty-eight, to James and Catherine Zachary in the Jefferson Memorial, until taken to Vault 101 by your father after your mother's death. Nineteen years later your father left the Vault and you went in search of him. From there you became the biggest pain in the fucking arse for every raider in the Wasteland with your 'goodey two shoes' attitude in life. Eurgh, it's sickening," Ral'ee and almost every raider that had begun to surround them spat on the ground.

Connor moved even closer to Ral'ee, causing all thirty odd raiders to raise their weapons at him.  
He was unphased by this as opposed to Sarah and Vargas who raised their own weapons at the raiders.

"How do you know all of that? There is _no one_ in this wasteland that knows any of that but me!"

Ral'ee just continued to laugh more until a murderous look came across his face.

"Because my dear boy. The Enclave knows everything." Ra'lee stepped back a few metres, raising his right hand and then dropped it when he felt he was far enough away.

Seconds later the sound of a high powered sniper rifle echoed throughout the area and Sarah fell to the ground.

Con turned around to see her fall, running to her and holding her as he looked at the hole in her Power Armour's chest plate, a small amount of blood starting to pour out of it.

Without a seconds thought Vargas started to spray every raider full of lead from his minigun, cutting all of them down while Ral'ee ran to the Mill's factory. Connor picked Sarah up and yelled to Vargas over the sounds of his gun, "We need to get out of here! Call the Bird back and let's go!"

Vargas turned with Con who was carrying Sarah as they ran down the track through the corridor where dozens more raiders were standing just waiting as they began shooting at the three of them.

Considering Con was holding Sarah and couldn't fire any of his weapons Vargas ran in front of him and mowed all the raiders down with his spray of 5mm bullets.

Using the radio inside of his helmet, Vargas called the Vertibird back while the three of them were running to the landing zone, dozens more raiders in pursuit of them.

When they got the landing zone the Vertibird was yet to be seen so Connor put a now unconscious Sarah carefully on the ground and drew his plasma rifle, aiming at every single raider he saw and firing at them. Some of them turned into green gloop while others lost limbs and cried and screamed on the ground. Connor took a grenade off his belt and threw it towards a small group of four raiders which sent them and all their limbs flying in every direction.

"Die you godamn, motherfucking arseholes! I will come back and slaughter all of you pathetic excuse for human beings! DIE!" Connor yelled at all of them, throwing the rest off his grenades then shooting them again with his plasma rifle. The veins in his necks were protruding strongly like Vargas had never seen before. He was sure if he looked in Connor's eyes he would only see blood red.

Vargas had been in more fights then he could count with him but had never seen him so angry and bloodthirsty. In all honesty, Vargas was scared of him. He knew if Sarah died anytime soon, every raider in the Wasteland better run and hide because there was no way any of them would survive the hell he would bring upon them.

Very few raiders remained and those that did started to retreat back to the Mill.  
The Vertibird was now in sight and coming down for a landing next to the three of them.

When it landed Connor picked Sarah up and put her inside, resting her across the seats and sitting down on the floor, putting his head in the crook between her head and shoulder, a few tears managing to escape his eyes and fall down his cheek.

Vargas got in the aircraft and it took off as fast as it could for the Citadel.

'_They'll pay for this. I swear I will come back and slaughter them all. There will be no more raiders in this shithole of a world when I'm done with them!'_

Thoughts of anger and murder swelled in his mind as he sat there.

Vargas had never seen such a sight in his entire life. He knew Falcon was going to make sure that whoever was responsible for this was going to suffer. Even if it killed him in the process.


	6. Message In A Bullet Part II

**Of The Past We Use To Advance Chapter 6 – Message In A Bullet Part II.**

Elder Lyons rushed into the infirmary, seeing his daughter laying on one of the gurneys with May and Sawbones hovering around her, tending to her wound. Owyn noticed Sarah's bloodstained armour littered on the floor with the large hole, the size of an apple, in the breastplate where her heart would be.

Vargas was sitting down, head in hands next to another gurney that Connor was asleep on while the Enclave boy Tyler was standing next to them against the wall. Owyn walked to Vargas and essentially demanded, "What happened out there? And what is wrong with Falcon?"

Vargas sighed heavily before standing to face the Elder.

"We were attacked by the raiders there. It was all a trap to kill us. Sarah was hit by a sniper. As for Con, when we got here he was... well, I would say agitated but that doesn't even compare. He's angry sir. Very angry. I asked May to sedate him because he kept going on about how he was going to kill every single raider he comes across, regardless if Sarah..." Vargas choked up at what he was thinking, _'If Sarah died'_.

Owyn lowered his head and looked towards his daughter. May turned and scrubbed the blood off her hands in a bowl of soapy water. "May? How is she?"

She reluctantly looked up at Owyn, seeing the fear and sadness in the old man's eyes.

"At the moment she's... Stable. When the bullet hit her armour it was slowed down considerably but it still hit her in the chest, penetrating her heart. Had the bullet not been slowed down at all then..." May trailed off closing her eyes and taking a breath before she continued talking.

"But it's still a major problem though. Her heart is damaged. At the moment Sawbones is the only thing keeping her alive, helping her heart beat like it should. At least until a machine that we have in storage is brought up to take over for him."

"She can't live the rest of her life attached to a machine. What else can we do?"

May shook her head, taking another deep breath.

"That's the thing. There is nothing we can do. There was some pre-war medical technology that acted as an artificial heart inside the body, completely replacing the heart and allowing the patient to live relatively normal lives. Unfortunately these days the only places that would have that technology would be a Vault."

Owyn's eyes lit up as he thought of 101. "What about One-oh-one? Falcon knows the Overseer of the Vault well so I'm sure they wouldn't mind letting us have the heart."

"I'm sorry sir but they don't."

The spark in Owyn's eyes vanished and sadness encompassed his face again.

"How do you know?"

"I've already contacted One-oh-one and they told us they were never equipped with that technology. I also checked the Vault-Tech terminal we have and looked at the inventory listing for all vault's in the area. The listing showed one record but the data was corrupted and classified."

May took a short breath as she continued saying, "I tried hacking in but because of the data corruption I could only find a small mention of the technology in a vault called M-Seven, but considering there is no M-Seven..." May trailed off again, turning and sitting down in a chair at the infirmary's desk as silence played its presence in the room.

The silence was broken when Connor groaned as he was starting to wake up, "Urgh, my head. Vargas I'm going to kill you later for drugging me," he started to get off the gurney but fell, being caught by Tyler. Vargas went over to Connor and helped Tyler lift him back on the gurney.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah I know. Though how about you rest up first and don't get angry alright. You've had enough anger for one day."

He looked up at Vargas then over to Sarah, sighing deeply he began to lie down, waiting for the sedative to completely wear out.

Lyons looked to May and said, "I will consult the database of historical records to see if there is a place where the technology may still be. Hopefully I will be able to find something."

"I'll help you sir. There's a lot of history in that database to go through," Vargas offered to which Owyn nodded his head as the two of them walked out of the infirmary.

As if he was almost scared to talk, Tyler began by saying to Connor, "So, are you alright sir?"

A small, almost sarcastic smile ran over his lips when he looked at Tyler.

"I'll be fine Tyler. At least physically anyway... And don't call me sir. It annoys me enough when RL-3 calls me that."

Tyler looked confused at the mention of someone, or something he didn't know, then Con realised he would have no idea who he was talking about.

"RL-3 is my Mister Gutsy robot. One of many followers I had when I roamed the Wasteland last year."

A little more confident in his speech, Tyler continued to ask questions.

"Oh right; when you activated the Purifier. You said one of many you _had_. What happened to all of them?"

His followers were some of his best friends and some of them suffered tragedies. He also didn't completely trust Tyler. He could see the significant difference in him since he was injected with May's serum but even so, he wasn't going to tell him too much.

"That's a conversation for another time, when I'm feeling talkative."

"Okay, sure, sorry," Tyler said quietly. He was no real threat to the Citadel, anymore at least, but he wasn't allowed to roam around, he had to stay in the infirmary or with a guard in one of the barracks.

Connor got up and walked over to where Sarah was, several tubules sticking out of an incision May made around her heart which were attached to Sawbones pincer arm. He was pulling them together than apart as the tubules were helping Sarah's heart beat at its steady pace the way it should be beating.

"I know it might not mean anything but, I'm sorry for what's happened to her. Sawbones told me she is one of the greatest of the Brotherhood leaders."

"Oh Tyler she's so much more than that. Caring, compassionate, and so strong willed. And she's... She's my greatest friend. Hell, she's more than that."

Con turned around and looked at Tyler who was still against the wall.

"Are you hungry kid?"

"Yeah a little bit"

He walked to the door and stopped, looking at him, "Well are you coming or not?"

Tyler smiled and walked out with him towards the galley.

* * *

Owyn and Vargas were sifting through the records in Rothchild's office while Reginald was busy working on the Enclave communicator again, trying to tap in to the frequencies used by the higher command officers of the Enclave. He had found a few and taken note of the frequencies but he found one that striked the attention of all three of them in the room.

"...welcome to war gentlemen. This message repeats: To the Brotherhood of Steel located in the old Pentagon building near the D.C. ruins. This is General Harman Turner of the Enclave Remnant. By being the cause of the destruction of Raven Rock, stealing the Purifier from us, attacking our Air Force Base and also seizing control of our Mobile Crawler and finally, ambushing and attacking our encampment at the remains of Raven Rock; you have hereby declared war against the Enclave. We have already made our first strike by hopefully killing one of your leaders and we will soon strike again. The Enclave always retaliates to any threat. Welcome to war gentlemen. This message repeats."

Rothchild turned the device off and looked towards Owyn. Reginald could already see the anger boiling behind the eyes of his old friend and knew things were about to speed up around here.

* * *

Con and Tyler were seated in one of the booths of the galley, Con watching Tyler as he dug into his Brahmin steak and then scoffed down some green jelly; well what Connor presumed was green jelly.

"So tell me about yourself Tyler. Where abouts in the world were you born and raised till you came here?"

Through a mouthful of food Tyler began to reply, "Well, I was born in a Vault Called M-One in Colorado where I was raised by my mother like every other Enclave kid till I came of age and was put in training."

A look of shock enveloped Con's face. "Hang on, hang on. You were born in a Vault?"

Tyler swallowed his food in one gulp looking at Con curiously. "M-One is in Colorado Springs just south of Vault Zero in Cheyenne Mountain Complex. Well, what's left of Vault Zero anyway."

'_M-One? That M would mean it's a military Vault. Hmm, I wonder...'_ May who was walking past them to get something to eat before she slept overheard them speaking, when a thought came into her mind. She turned and walked over to the two of them looking Tyler in the eyes.

"You just said you're from a vault called M-One right? Have you ever heard of Vault M-Seven and do you know where it is?"

"Uhh, yeah, I think so. I remember reading about the military vaults when I was looking at a listing of all the Vaults once. I don't know exactly where it is but each major American city had a military vault built in complete secrecy where the generals and other officers of the army and their families were going to live."

A broad toothed, almost scary looking smile stretched across her face as she looked at Connor.

"What?" he asked.

* * *

May, Connor and Tyler went in search of Elder Lyons and Vargas so they could suggest a plan May and Con had just made up on the way to the lab. Now that they had knowledge that there may actually be a way to save Sarah, they were keen to start searching.

The three of them made their way through the Science Lab doors on the lower level, Tyler stopping in his tracks when he saw about a dozen people welding, banging or plugging things in on a giant black coloured robot. He could not believe his eyes. The right shoulder area and the entire left leg was exposed without any armoured protection showing the skeletal frame of the oversized robot but it was still an amazing site to see.

When Connor realised Tyler was struck with awe he grabbed him by the arm and pulled him along while he kept his eyes on the massive machine.

They found Lyons and Vargas in Rothchild's office, each with concerned looks on their face and discussing something. When they realised that May, Con and Tyler were there they stopped and looked at them.

"We have some disturbing news. We just heard a message from a General Turner being broadcasted from the Enclave. They've declared war against us," Owyn stated to the three of them.

"Honestly sir, I don't care at the moment. We may have a way of saving Sarah, thanks to Tyler here."

Owyn looked past Connor to Tyler who was standing behind him. "Explain yourselves."

"Tyler told me he was born and raised in a Vault that housed members of the military after the world went to shit. He also told us that in every major city, like here in D.C. a military Vault was created in secrecy. And as May told us that when she checked the Vault medical list the technology that could save Sarah was said to only be in a Vault named M-Seven right? Well, M-Seven is here somewhere. We just have to find out where, go there, get the tech we need, bring it back and May can work her medical magic on Sarah."

Con was smiling and happy at the thought they could save her. No, not happy, ecstatic like he hadn't been since before he left his home in 101.

"I'm more than happy that there is a way to save her but we have a problem. If the remnant of the Enclave has declared war on us, the people of the Wasteland are in trouble. We are still recovering from our losses last year and now it means we will have to spread our resources and troops thin in preparations for the defence of the Citadel and all other settlements."

"Well you know you'll always have the backup of Fawkes and RL-3, both of whom are damn good assets to have in a fight. I also still hold Charon's contract and I know he's been itching to kill something for a while so he can help you out too; and the same can be said for Jericho. He's one mean son of a bitch and even though he can be an insubordinate prick, he still follows orders. If you have them leading some of your forces you know you'll have a greater chance of winning a fight."

"I'll send someone out to collect them immediately if they wish to help us. Now, how are you going to go about finding where this vault is?"

"I'm going to go to the Vault-Tech Headquarters and access the mainframe there. I'll download everything, hell, take the memory core with me if I have to and bring it back here so we can access the information."

Owyn nodded his head in thought, "Very well then, but you can't go alone. Because we have been flushing them out of central D.C., that area has recently been taken over by the Super Mutants who have been retreating from us. Indeed a dangerous place to be."

"I can manage sir. I've gone up against Behemoth's on my own before so I think I can go up against a horde of them. But back up would be good."

Owyn sighed, a solemn look on his face, "I can't spare anyone. If we are to defend the Wasteland we need our brothers to be everywhere. I'm sorry."

"I'll go with you," Tyler said, attracting the attention of everyone in the room. "I have combat experience and I've gone against mutants before. You need help and I don't really want to be stuck here..."

Con turned his gaze to Owyn raising his eyebrow, a silent way of asking him if it was fine.

"If you wish it then so be it. But he will be your responsibility Falcon."

"Yes sir," Con saluted in a mocking military manner and turned to Tyler, "Come on then kid. Time to get you some armour and weapons. We'll have a few hours rest and leave as soon as possible."


	7. Step One Part I

**Of The Past We Use To Advance Chapter 7 – Step One Part I.**

One of the upsides to being a Knight of the Brotherhood, and practically considered family by the Elder, was that Falcon had his own room which he considered his home in the Citadel. It was about the same size as the lower level of his house in Megaton but with an extra feature. He had his own armoury space in an adjacent room.

After unlocking the door to his home Falcon walked in with Tyler behind him and said, "Welcome to my humble abode."

The layout and size of the room reminded Tyler of his home Vault; small with the bare essentials to survive. The door to the home was in the right hander corner of the room, with a red and white striped painted door directly opposite it with the name 'Armoury' imprinted across it.

Tyler followed Con who went to the Armoury door and accessed a terminal with a very hard encryption. The metal door opened up and they walked in.

Tyler was in awe at everything he could see.

The left wall of the room had a series of racks with all of Falcon's various forms of apparel such as modified combat armours, suits of power armour and lighter armour or clothing Con had modified in some way.  
The wall opposite the door displayed all handguns, assault, bolt action, laser and plasma rifles, and the right wall was of heavy weapons like his Fatman or a few different looking flamethrowers.  
On the wall where the door to the room was, held an array of mines and grenades while in the centre of the room around a set of spiralling stairs there were large containers and drawers reaching as high as the ceiling full of all the different types of ammo for his weapons.

While Tyler was still roaming around the room looking at all the various weapons, some which he had never seen before, Falcon walked to the left wall of the room and went searching amongst the armour to find something appropriate for Tyler to wear.

He contemplated letting him wear one of his two T-51b Power Armour's that were being held in a security field upstairs but decided against it.  
Instead he went to the racks that held several types of combat armour he had modified and picked one of his newer versions. It was originally a Talon Combat Amour but he reinforced it and built holsters onto the armour to hold a combat knife on the back of its waist, a handgun on the left and right legs and a sniper rifle on the back. Also clips to hold grenades on the belt around the waist.

"Hey kid, come over here and try this on. You look like a size or two smaller than me so this should fit you."

Tyler placed a dart gun he picked up back on its holster on the wall and walked towards him, seeing Con pull out the black combat armour from the rack it was hanging off.  
He took it from Con and started to strip off the white jumpsuit the Brotherhood gave him to wear and put on the grey under shirt and pants of the armour while Con grabbed his brown overcoat from a hanger near the door and started to collect the weapons he thought they may need.

A3's Plasma Rifle, his Lincoln's Repeater and Blackhawk, like always, were the first weapons he collected, along with five plasma grenades.

"Uhh Falcon. Could you come here please," Tyler asked of him.  
Con walked to him, finding him dressed in the grey undershirt and black pants the armour had with his boots and armoured shin pads on already.

"What's up kid?"

"Could you help me tighten the torso piece 'cause I umm... well I've never really worn combat armour before."

Falcon just laughed as he moved in to help him, "I can't believe an Enclave soldier who is trained to wear Power Armour, which itself is a pain in the ass to put on; can't figure out how to wear combat armour."

Falcon helped Tyler put the torso piece on and showed him where to tighten the straps under the shoulder and at his sides until it fit him perfectly, then the two of them then began collecting weapons for Tyler.

Falcon moved over to a corner of the room where a rack of two sniper rifles and his Gauss rifle were.

"Hmm, I think maybe... Yup, this rifle should be best for you. Its aim is a little bit accurate than the others and has more ammo per magazine. Here you go," Falcon passed the rifle to him and continued talking, "Now pick up one of the bandoliers by the staircase there and find the two drawers that say .308 and .44. Take as much ammo from it as you can carry while I get you some other weapons."

Tyler looked down at the faded green coloured weapon and noticed the name _Victory_ etched in the side of it. Then he moved towards the staircase, picking up the bandolier and searched for the drawers that said .308 and .44.

"Alright, here's a combat knife and a Magnum for you. Now take care of this. This gun is from a friend of mine name Paulson. I'll tell you now that if you lose it he's going to be mighty pissed at you."

Tyler placed the Victory rifle on his back and took the knife and magnum, placing them in their holsters.

"Okay time to go. Elder Lyons has offered to drop us near the HQ by Vertibird since they're already heading into D.C."

The two of them walked out of the room, Falcon making sure the door was locked and headed towards the Vertipad in front of the Citadel.

* * *

The Vertibird got as close to the uneven ground as it could without having to land in front of the Vault-Tech building.

Falcon and Tyler jumped out after the pilot told them they most likely will have to walk back to the Citadel because they'll be too busy flying everywhere else in the Wasteland.

The Vertibird lifted off up past the centuries old surrounding buildings and took off towards the Museum of history to collect Charon and Fawkes.

"Alright Tyler, there's something you should know. Last time I was here it was infested with security robots. I managed to get in and alter their programming to allow me and whoever I have with me complete access to the building and control over them. But there could be mutants there now so I suggest you load your weapons and keep them ready to fire."

Tyler took a breath and pulled Victory off his back, making sure the rifle was loaded.

"Alright, time to head in. Do your best to stay quiet okay."

The two of them walked towards the building's doors and opened them, walking inside cautiously, smelling the stale stench of the air that the old buildings had.

It was the middle of the day so the light from the sun was making its way through the shattered windows into the room. Falcon looked up at the Vault Door hanging from the ceiling noticing that it said '101' and noticed a few posters like someone playing Baseball in the vault. It brought memories to the surface of his mind, like three years ago when he was seventeen years old, playing baseball. It was his and Amata's team versus Butch's team. They had won and the party afterwards had been quite fun, with very unexpected occurrences happening between him and Butch...

Falcon shook the memories away as the two of them walked to the other side of the room and up the stairs. They began walking through the door that said Corporate Offices and down the hallway.  
Their aim was to get to the central computer of Vault-Tec's HQ and everything had been fine, until the two of them heard a low grumbling sound ahead of them.

Falcon looked behind him to Tyler who looked frozen on the spot, his hands shaking while he was holding Victory.

"Are you alright kid?" Falcon whispered to him. Tyler looked at him and nodded his head.

The two of them continued on walking past several rooms until coming to the metal gate leading to the central computer when a loud voice came from behind, "There you are!"

By the time they had turned around and saw a super mutant, it had already picked up Tyler and threw him against the wall. Falcon pulled out his plasma rifle and aimed at the yellow mutants head firing three shots before it was illuminated in a fluorescent green colour and turned into a large puddle of goo. Falcon turned around to Tyler leaning against the wall and said, "I love seeing them turn to gloop. You okay kid?"

Tyler nodded his head and picked up Victory which he dropped before he hit the wall.

Before he could say anything they heard a growl from where the mutant came from; Falcon turned fast and raised his weapon. He moved forward slowly and made his Pip-Boy light flare up, pointing it in the dark hallway. There were two more mutants who were blinded by the Pip-Boy light so Falcon took the opportunity and started firing at them. He shot the first one in the chest a few times, burning a hole straight through it. Once it fell he aimed at the second but it had more protection over its body so Falcon focused on the limbs, shooting at its arms and head until the mutant turned into a pile of goo like the first one.

He turned around, hoping that was the last one but found another mutant holding a struggling Tyler up off the ground by his throat in one hand, in the other he had a Chinese assault rifle.

"Food shouldn't be shooting at us," it declared in a low voice.

"Put him down you fucking mutant or I swear I'll blow your head off!"

The mutant laughed hard and yelled, "I'M HUNGRY!" It started to move back slowly towards the door behind it, watching Falcon with its large eyes.

Falcon started to move forward but stopped when the mutant tightened its grip on Tyler's throat.

"Fuck this, you're going down," he aimed his rifle at the mutants head and fired as many shots as he could before the microfusion cell died out. In one swift motion he dropped his rifle and pulled Blackhawk from his holster, aiming at the mutants head through the scope and with deadly accuracy he fired three rounds before the mutant dropped to the ground letting go of Tyler.

Falcon reloaded and then returned Blackhawk to its holster and picked up his plasma rifle, loading a new microfusion cell into it. He walked to Tyler who picked up Victory again and stood up, rubbing his neck and shaking from what just happened.

"You okay Tyler?"

He looked up at him replied while coughing slightly, "Yeah, I'll be fine. I just, didn't think I'd be coming back from that is all."

"Well so long as I'm around, don't worry about. Now come on, the computer is through there.

The two of them walked through the metal gate and down through more hallways, coming to the computer core.

"I thought you said that there were some robotic defences in here?"

"Yeah, I can only guess the mutants got rid of them. Probably ate them too," Falcon replied, laughing in thought of a mutant cracking open a Robo-brains brain module like a tin of Pork N'Beans.

They arrived at the computer core and Falcon began to access its information, searching for listings of any military vaults in the area.

* * *

After an hour of searching through the records, and the continuous threat of Super Mutants walking in on them, Falcon gave up and simply took the hard drive of the core placing it in a satchel he brought with him hoping there was a way he and Rothchild could access the data when they got back to the Citadel.

After battling several more Mutants, Falcon and Tyler made it outside where he signalled the Vertibird to return. Luckily they were already on their way to the Citadel and could pick them up.  
As the minutes rolled by while they waited for the Vertibird to return to them Con noticed a horde of Mutants coming from the nearest subway station, no doubt looking for their food.

"For fucksake, these things just won't piss off will they?!" Falcon whispered, the anger and annoyance present in his voice.

The two of them had taken cover in a bombed out building while they waited for the Vertibird.

"We could always fight them? Maybe we'll be able to take them out."

Falcon looked at Tyler, then back at the mutants thinking it over before he replied, "No, it's not worth it. There's too many of them in the area and I don't think we'd have enough ammo anyway. I'm down to my last three microfusion cells and I'm sure you've only got a few more .308's left."

"Yeah, I have nineteen rounds left. Though we could always use the weapons and ammo the muties have?"

Falcon began to reply but smiled instead as he heard the engine of the Vertibird.

"I think we won't have to. Make sure your weapon is loaded kid, we're going to have to fight our way to the bird before we can escape."

Falcon gave one last check at the microfusion cell in his rifle before he crept out of the building and aimed at a few of the mutants who were looking up in curiosity to what the sound of the Vertibird was.

The Vertibird came to a hovering stop above the ground, distracting the mutants, even more so when Fawkes jumped out and started to spray every mutant with the heated laser beam of his Gatling gun while Falcon and Tyler ran towards it, also shooting any mutants that got in their way. They reached the open door of the Vertibird, jumping in, followed by Fawkes and then signalled the pilot to take off as the other mutants now began to fire at the Vertibird.

"It is good to see you my friend," Fawkes declared in his deep voice, giving Falcon a bone-crushing hug.

"Heh, it's good to see you too. And you too Charon," Falcon replied, and looked to Charon who was sitting comfortably reading a book, only looking up momentarily to give Falcon a nod and say hello in his ghoulish voice.


	8. Step One Part II

**Hello everyone.**  
**I've been reading all the messages from a few of you asking me to finish the story and considering I've been off work sick I thought I'd get back into it and finish it off.**  
**So here's the next chapter, I hope you enjoy it and also enjoyed chapter 7 considering it's the first chapter I've uploaded in a little while.**  
**Hopefully chapter 9 will be finished and uploaded by about Wednesday and then 10 a few days after that.**

**I'm doing my best to write up all the future chapters and get to the end of it. It has been quite the fun piece of fanfiction to write and I'll be glad to finally finish up the final chapter. By the looks of it, there'll roughly be about 20 chapters in total and then the Epilogue which I've already written. And boy, did I enjoy writing that. When you get to read it, I know you'll love it.**

**Anyway, now, Chapter 8! :)**

* * *

**Of The Past We Use To Advance Chapter 8 – Step One Part II.**

"There you go. Fort Bannister it is," Rothchild sighed as he scratched his chin.

"Oh yay. I can't wait to walk all the way over to Bannister just to piss of Jabby again."

Rothchild looked at Falcon curiously, "_Jabby_?"  
He let out a laugh saying, "Yeah, the commander of the base is called Jabsco, but I call him Jabby. Not only does it piss him off but it reminds him that I own his ass!"

"Hmm, I won't even begin to understand why, but I'll go see Elder Lyons and tell him what we've found."

"Alright, well I'm going to go rest up before the long walk."

Falcon and Rothchild left his office, Falcon heading to his home to sleep while Rothchild went in search of Owyn.

On his way home, Falcon walked past the infirmary and made the choice to stop inside.  
He was still heartbroken every time he saw Sarah now, her limp body lying there on the gurney in the corner of the room, a pre-war machine with tubes running into her chest where her damaged heart is.

Falcon took her hand in his and said softly, "Hello Sarah. I hope it won't be too long until I can get you the help you need. I didn't admit I loved you just to have you die on me..." the heartache was so present in his voice that even Sawbones who overheard him while he hovered in the room, gave him the boost in morale he needed.

"Sir, Knight Lyons is a strong soldier. She will make it in time for you to find the help she needs. You are as strong as her and I know you _will_ find the help. I have the utmost faith in you Sir!"

Falcon wiped his watery eyes and turned to Sawbones and did something so unexpected that it gave the floating octopus a proud feeling in his emotional programming.

He saluted him.

* * *

Owyn sat in front of Rothchild and scratched his head in thought.  
"So my friend, let me try and understand this. You found an encrypted file on the hard-drive Falcon recovered from the Vault-Tech headquarters, which can give us the location of this Vault M7?"

"Yes, although there is a problem," Rothchild sat next to Owyn.

"Falcon and I linked the drive to the Citadel's main computer and began going through the listing of all the Vaults in the area. We eventually found a file with series of classified records that Falcon was able to hack into. It holds detailed information of all the military Vaults that were built before the bombs fell. However, all the records, including M7 have their own variations of encryption. There was something interesting though. When we attempted to access the M7 file, a message appeared saying, _'Pentagon Priority Access Enabled – Secondary Access Codes Required: (Ft. Ban): Access Denied'_ so we still have no way of knowing where this M-Seven is."

"But you say you know what the computer means with it saying secondary access codes are required?"  
Rothchild gave a half-hearted smile while a look of worry managed to make its way across his face.  
"Yes you see, the file needs two types of access codes. It has already recognised the pre-war codes in the database of the Citadels computer but we need the other access code. Now all the military records we have in the Citadel have specific code names for all the military bases in the D.C. area. _'Ft. Ban'_ is Fort Bannister, which, as you know, is Talon Company's headquarters."

Owyn stood and walked to his desk, leaning against it.  
"I often wonder if the Wasteland provides us with these challenges to test us, or just try to kill us."  
Rothchild stood up and let out a small laugh. "I would go as far as saying it is both."

His friend smiled at him before letting out his own laugh. It's all they could do to try and keep their spirits up.

"Tell Falcon he may leave as soon as he wishes to, but he will have to make the journey on foot. All of our Vertibirds are elsewhere in the Wasteland helping to secure the smaller towns and other settlements."

Rothchild nodded his head and walked out of Owyn's room as the old man ventured into his bedroom and laid down on his bed. He had so many different thoughts, and fears, running rampant in his head.


End file.
